IT should have been a tranquil haven for amateur gardeners tending their vegetable patches and growing award-winning blooms.

Instead Bootle’s Gardner Avenue allotments became a hotbed of abuse and intimidation as disputes between plotholders boiled over.

Now Sefton council has been ordered to compensate two gardeners at the centre of the five-year row.

The local authority must pay £1,000 to a man in his 70s who it accused of being part of a “foul and abusive” row with another man, and then wrongly claimed had a criminal record.

Another £450 was awarded to 57-year-old Jim Dolan, a plotholder of 23 years, who was locked out of his allotment for eight weeks over a tenancy agreement dispute.

Local government ombudsman Anne Seex, who investigates complaints against councils, has finally published two critical reports into Sefton’s handling of the allotments’ two “factions”.

But the dispute is now expected to take an unusual twist after officials suggested the council should not comply with Mrs Seex’s findings.

Plotholders made multiple complaints about the council failing to administer the allotments properly in early 2005, more than a year after claims of intimidation first surfaced.

The ombudsman and council tried to thrash out a solution in late 2006 with the authority taking over the running of the allotments and making every plotholder sign tenancy agreements.

But instead of easing tensions, two separate problems, one involving Mr Dolan and the other the 70-year-old man, surfaced. Both men complained to the ombudsman.

Mrs Seex has now accused the council of maladministration in both cases, but her decision left few people happy.

Mr Dolan believes the ombudsman should lift the lid on allegations of “intimidation and anti-social behaviour” at the allotments.

He said: “The findings were not unexpected. I am part of a group of 34 mainly elderly allotment holders, some in poor health, who were shown nothing but bad faith by Sefton council.

“But these two minor reports represent barely 10-15% of the complaints made over the past three years.

“The situation regarding threats and intimidation has calmed down. But it could flare up again.”

Councillors will discuss whether to comply with Mrs Seex’s recommendations at a meeting next week.

A report says: “The council can reasonably expect a level of impartiality from the ombudsman.

“But regretfully the investigator appears to have ignored the best intentions of the council in trying to resolve the situation at the stage where site administration had almost completely broken down, and has ignored the good and extensive work to bring the site back under control.

“Officers are most unhappy with the investigation undertaken by the ombudsman into these complaints.”